When we set off on our cycle adventure we made the decision not to 'do it for charidee mate'.  We didn't feel comfortable asking people to sponsor us to do something that we thought was fun rather than a challenge.  We said instead that if people wanted to give money they should choose their own charity and do so. 

But now we've changed our minds.

As we cycled into Xieng Khouang province in Northern Laos we knew we'd have to be careful about where we camped as a significant amount of unexploded ordnance still contaminates the countryside - a legacy that remains forty years after the USA gave Laos the unenviable title of 'most bombed country per capita in history'.

We naively assumed that camping in a field that had obviously been well used by people and their livestock would be a safe option.  But then we visited the MAG International Information Centre in Phonsavan and had our eyes opened to the danger that haunts Lao people's daily lives and keeps their country locked in poverty.

The scale of the problem in Laos is so enormous that even with targetted clearance programmes millions of tennis ball sized 'bombies' remain littered across the countryside, including in villages and school playing fields. Farmers who have been treading gingerly in their rice paddies for forty years are still finding bombies in them even today. 

For forty years death or mutilation has been an accepted risk every time people step out of their front doors.  Villagers have a choice of starving or risking their lives trying to expand their farmland.  Development work to build new roads, schools, hospitals and water supplies is stymied.  The tourism industry, which could bring much-needed income and jobs to poorer villages cannot be safely developed until the unexploded ordnance is identified and destroyed.

You can help MAG give Laos, and places like it, a safer and more prosperous future.

Please, please be as generous as you can.

Thank you!

Keith and Tamar

www.threewheeling.net

 

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